Franchise Update Magazine Issue III, 2013 | Page 26

Grow Market Lead

By Kerry Pipes and Eddy Goldberg

Own Your
Audience!

Consumer Marketing Conference sets new records

M

ore than 300 franchise
marketing executives and
suppliers packed the RitzCarlton Buckhead in Atlanta on June 25–26 for the third annual
Franchise Consumer Marketing Conference. The theme this year was “Own
Your Audience,” and by all accounts the
conference delivered the goods.
Day One kicked off early with two
simultaneous boot camps. One dug deep
into marketing essentials in four onehour mini-sessions. Facilitated by last
year’s Conference Chair Ed Waller, cofounder of CertaPro Painters, the four
topics were 1) “Identify Your Audience,”
2) “Create the Experience,” 3) “Deliver
the Experience,” and 4) “Measure the
Experience.” This highly creative and
entertaining session featured panelists
discussing marketing challenges they’ve

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faced or are facing, followed by attendees working in teams, by table, to provide
solutions and present them to the entire
session, competing for prizes.
Each segment featured new panelists. They included Tom Wood, CEO
of Floor Coverings International; Ann
Latendresse, brand marketing director
at Great Clips; COO Clarissa Bradstock
and CEO Joe Neely of Any Lab Test
Now; Jayson Pearl, chief brand officer
at BrightStar Care; Ruth Swanson, vice
president of marketing at Fantastic Sams;
and Gillian Maffeo, marketing director
at Jake’s Wayback Burgers.
The other morning session, led by
branding and marketing expert John
Moore, focused on “Sparking, Spreading,
and Sustaining the Online Conversation.”
Moore, COO of marketing firm Brains on
Fire, is a word-of-mouth advocate who

has worked at brands including Starbucks
and Whole Foods. His first book, “Tribal
Knowledge,” chronicled his time at Starbucks. His next book, due this September,
is called “The Passion Conversation,” and
focuses on understanding the power of
word-of-mouth, or as Moore called it,
WOMology.
Combining nuggets from academic
research and marketing statistics (62
percent of marketers spend 6 hours a
week on social media; 36 percent spend
11 hours) with real-world stories and
practical suggestions (afternoon is the
best time to Tweet, and most re-Tweets
are on Fridays), Moore challenged attendees to examine their roles in new and
expanded ways, asking questions such as
“How does your business amaze or amuse
customers?” and “If your business didn’t
exist tomorrow, would you be missed?”